CH-47 Chinook Helicopter Kit

I designed my CH-47 Chinook helicopter kit over a decade ago and have since cut it a few times, but now I’m making it available on SandboxRanch.com.

If you want to see what a decade does to a creative man, here’s me showing this model off way back when!

My son loves his CH-47 Chinook helicopter, it instantly become one of his most favorite toys among all the other toys I’ve made for him so let’s see how I made it!

As you saw, I originally cut this out using my ShopBot Desktop, a machine I still have to this very day, but I decided to laser cut it out this time around, the model works either way, and each technology has a plus and a minus when it comes to making model kits, there are no best machines out there or processes, just the best given what needs to be made.

For this specific CH-47 Chinook helicopter kit that I’m cutting for SandboxRanch.com, I used plywood that was slightly less than 1/4″ thick, it was actually 15% thinner, so the model was scaled to match, thus the finished model is 15% smaller in scale than originally designed to be quarter inch.

I design my projects based on material thickness, it makes the model so much easier to design and scale as the % off the designed thickness is just applied to the kit design file and voila, you have a perfectly fitting interlocking model when done.

For this CH-47 Chinook helicopter model kit on SandboxRanch.com, laser cutting it out means I don’t have any clean-up on the edges to do as I’d have if I made this with my router, that being said, it is a lot slower to laser cut than router cut this kit all other things being the same.

As you saw in the video, I made a few modifications to the kit for my son, he’s 2.5 years old and as such, there are certainly hazards that I saw ahead of time so that they don’t become a problem.

This CH-47 Chinook helicopter model kit has been cut a few times, and yes, I’ve laser cut this before as well, but the models have been lost through the years so it was time to cut a fresh one for my son.

This just shows you how ageless model kits are, what I designed over a decade ago still cuts fine and fresh today as it did back then, regardless of the technology used to make it with.

Before SandboxRanch.com or even CNCROi.com, there was CNCKing.com (and WoodMarvels.com), so it’s been a progression through the years of teaching myself custom fabrication as equipment and software evolved over time.

Laser cutting plywood is no different than other materials we cut at the shop, it just goes faster on thinner material and slower for thicker, this being quarter inch, it’s relatively fast and CNCROi.com has cut a ton of that though the years.

Our CNC laser makes relatively quick work of the plywood to transform it into pieces that will then form the finished CH-47 Chinook helicopter kit.

You’ll notice that the wood does warp a little during the cutting process of the CH-47 Chinook helicopter kit, these do not affect the finished SandboxRanch.com model.

There are internal stresses present in plywood that get released when our laser goes through the material, so this isn’t caused by heat, but by the internal composition of the plywood itself.

These stresses are also released in plywood when we use our CNC router, so they are not exclusive to laser cutting of, in this case, SandboxRanch.com‘s CH-47 Chinook helicopter kit.

Plywood is a unique animal but these stresses present in it are just more apparent the thinner the material is, you also get these in hardwoods and other materials, including metals so they are present in both man made and natural materials.

Now that SandboxRanch.com is finished cutting this CH-47 Chinook helicopter kit, you can see all the components that will make the finished model.

Before gluing the model together, I always do a quick dry-run, just to know ahead of time how things go together, even though I’m the designer of this CH-47 Chinook helicopter kit, I still follow this process myself.

I always apply plenty of glue on all my kits that I personally put together, I’ve been screwed in the past by not putting enough so I’ve found putting too much to be the better necessary evil.

For this specific SandboxRanch.com CH-47 Chinook helicopter kit, I painted it green then gave it to my son Simon to play with, about an hour later, one of the rotors was broken, as such, time to make them indestructible!

So I laser cut polycarbonate, which is bullet proof glass, and also add washers and longer screws to hold the rotors in place.

Here’s the broken rotor Simon did and the updated rotor design, it’s safer and slightly shorter as well, works out great!

Here’s a close-up of the rotor one layed onto the other, the reason for the additional circle of material on the polycarbonate rotor for the SandboxRanch.com CH-47 Chinook helicopter kit is for strength and to give less room for him to hit his head against it when he spins it.

And here’s the finished model with the updated polycarbonate rotors, it’s now his favorite SandboxRanch.com toy until I make him another toy.

Get your kit now at SandboxRanch.com.